The Americas

North American Colonial Settlements

French Colonies in the AmericasAD 1541 - 1763

Initial attempts to create a colony in what would become New France -
centred on Quebec in modern
Canada
- were patchy, with two attempts being undertaken in 1541 and 1598. The
second attempt took root and while each of the
French
provinces had its own governor, the lieutenant-general of New France, who
was usually the most senior of the governors, was the ultimate authority
in the colonies, answering directly to France between 1603-1627. After
1627 a permanent governor was appointed.

At its height, New France included Acadia (areas of eastern Quebec, the
coastal territories, and claims to
New England as far as
Philadelphia, although these became increasingly impractical in the face
of English
expansion there), Canada (modern eastern and central Canada), and
Louisiana (a vast
territory stretching across much of the east half of modern Midwestern
USA, most of
which was still almost exclusively the domain of
Native North American
tribes).

(Additional information by Mick Baker, and also from Indian Tribes
of the New England Frontier (Osprey No 428 Men-at-Arms Series), Michael
Johnson, Everyday Life of the North American Indian, Jon Manchip
White (1979), from The Encyclopaedia of North American Indian Tribes,
Bill Yenne (1986), from The Native Tribes of North America - A Concise
Encyclopaedia, Michael Johnson (1993), from the Atlas of Indians of
North America, Gilbert Legay (1995), and from External Links:
First Nations: Issues
of Consequence, Lee Sultzman, and
Legends of
America.)

1522 - 1524

King
Francis I of
France
is persuaded by the Italian explorer, Giovanni da Verrazzano, to allow an
expedition to find a western route to
China. At this time (and for a considerable period afterwards) it is
believed that there is a land bridge between America and China. Instead, in
1524, Verrazzano explores the coast of what is now South and North Carolina,
and then heads north to become the first European to explore the region of
later New York.

Here he makes contact with a people who are most likely to be the
Lenape, who refer to the
strangers from across the sea as the 'Swannuken', the 'salt water people'.
They are friendly and curious and would probably have remained so but
Verrazzano tries to kidnap some of them before he departs. During the
next eighty years, most of the coastal Algonquian speakers learn the hard
way to beware the European ships that occasionally stop to raid their
villages for slaves.

1541

As a friend of the king of
France,
Francis I, corsair and adventurer Jean-François de la Roque de Roberval is
appointed the first lieutenant-governor of New France, after being
commissioned by the king to settle the province of Canada. An advance party
under Jacques Cartier arrives in 1541 and founds a settlement at
Charlesbourg-Royal, while Roberval arrives in 1542 and meets the departing
Cartier off the coast of Newfoundland. Roberval continues onwards and resettles Charlesbourg-Royal,
but the colony survives less than two years due to severe
weather, disease, and attacks by the local tribe of Iroquois.

The settlement of Charlesbourg-Royal survived just two years and
was abandoned twice

1541 - 1543

Jean-François de la Roque de Roberval

First lieutenant-governor of New France.

1543

The post of lieutenant-general falls vacant when the colony is abandoned.

1564 - 1565

The French
create their first colony in south-eastern North America when they found
Fort Caroline in Florida.
The Spanish
destroy it the following year.

1598

Trading posts are being established in several parts of the territory which
soon becomes Acadia, but generally these fail as permanent settlements.

1598 - 1603

Marquis de la Roche-Mesgouez

1603

Pierre Dugua is granted exclusive rights to colonise lands in North America,
expanding the various settlements which collectively form Acadia. The
following year, a new settlement is founded on the modern Bay of Fundy:
Ile-Saint-Croix. Just a year later it is moved to Port Royal.

1603 - 1610

Pierre Dugua

1608 - 1609

Just a year after Port Royal is abandoned, Quebec City is
founded when three ships land from
France
at Tadoussac and their occupants proceed up river in boats to the site which
they start fortifying. Samuel de Champlain, the eventual first governor of
New France commands one of the ships. The following year, while striving to
improve relations with the local native tribes after years of European slave
raiding, Champlain and his small group encounter the
Iroquois. The Europeans drive
them off after killing their leaders, but the tone has been set for future
Franco-Iroquois relations.

Also in 1609,French explorer Samuel de Champlain enters the territory that
now forms Vermont on 30 July, claiming it for New France, and constructing
a fort which is the first European settlement there.

From the French settlement at Quebec on the St Lawrence River, Étienne Brulé
visits the Huron villages on Georgian Bay in 1611. By 1615 he discovers that
the Susquehannock are more than willing to ally themselves to the French and
Huron in their war against the Iroquois league. Friendly relations with the
Susquehannock are particularly valuable to the French, not only for the
purposes of trade, but because they serve to trap the Iroquois between two
powerful enemies.

Unfortunately, the new alliance alarms the
New Amsterdam traders on the
Hudson River, and they actively support the
Mohawk against the
Susquehannock. Although
they are relatively few in number and isolated by their inland location,
the Susquehannock manage to become an important trading partner with all
of the competing European powers - an achievement unmatched by any other
tribe.

1612 - 1613

Henry II

Prince of Condé.

1613

Port
Royal, which had been re-established in 1610, is destroyed. The surviving
settlers move off to neighbouring areas to create new settlements within
Acadia.

1622

Étienne
Brûlé leads an expedition into the territory that will become Michigan, but
the first permanent settlement is not made until 1668, at Sault Sainte-Marie.
Also during this century,
French
fur traders begin to enter into the territory that will later form Minnesota.
In the same year, the Province of Maine (the far north-eastern corner of the
modern
USA)
is founded as part of the
British
Colonies, its name perhaps originating from the French province of the
same name to the north.

Governors of New FranceAD 1627 - 1663

The position of governor in New France was the equivalent of a viceroyalty.
The governor answered directly to the king's ministers in
France,
and controlled the territories of Acadia, Canada and
Louisiana, although Acadia
and Louisiana had their own regional governors. The capital was in Quebec
City. It was this post which was later taken over by the
British and
survives today as the office of governor-general of
Canada.

1627 - 1635

Samuel de Champlain

First governor of New France. Founded Quebec City.

1629 - 1633

Champlain is captured in an
English attack and taken to London. Quebec is
ruined, but when Champlain is able to return in 1633 he sets about
rebuilding it. He also sets about attacking the Iroquois, intent on bringing
them to heel.

1634

Frenchman
Jean Nicolet is the first European to explore what is now Wisconsin. He
founds the Green Bay colony, which is settled mainly by fur traders.

1635 - 1648

Charles de Montmagny

1641 - 1645

The
Iroquois Wars begin, otherwise known as the Beaver Wars. Having
exhausted the beaver in their homeland, the Iroquois are running out of the
fur they need to trade for firearms from
New Netherland. Otherwise,
with European epidemics decimating their villages, it is only a matter of
time before they are annihilated. Their enemies, of course, are well-aware
of this problem and refuse permission for Iroquois hunters to pass through
their territories. Faced with a blockade, the Iroquois are forced into a
war in which they need either to conquer or to be destroyed. They concentrate
their attacks on the Huron after 1640, and by 1645 had succeeded in isolating
them from the Algonquin, Montagnais, and New France in the east. There follows
a two-year lull in the fighting after the Trois-Rivieres truce that is agreed
in 1645, thanks to the governor of New France, Charles de Montmagny.

1648 - 1651

Louis d'Ailleboust de Coulonge

1648 - 1650

The Iroquois
launch massive attacks into the Huron homeland and destroy the
Arendaronon villages. Sensing that the situation is becoming serious,
Susquehannock warriors
fight as Huron
allies, while their ambassadors send to the Iroquois council flatly demanding
a halt to the war. In 1648 New France's Governor Louis d'Ailleboust de Coulonge
also strives to prevent the Iroquois massacre of the Huron people, which is
partially in retribution for the latter becoming allied to the
French.
The attempts fail, and in the winter of 1648-1649, for some inexplicable reason,
the Huron refuse further offers of help from the Susquehannock and are overrun
by the Iroquois. Only small numbers of Huron survive the massacre.

1651 - 1657

Jean de Lauzon

Agreed peace with the Mohawk.

1650 - 1653

The Iroquois begin to launch attacks against the French, terrifying the
French colonists with their ferocious and blood-thirsty warfare tactics.
Whatever help the Susquehannock may be able to give to the Neutrals is cut
short when the Mohawk attack the Susquehannock villages. With the
Susquehannock unable, and the Erie unwilling to help, the Neutrals are
quickly defeated. The Mohawk, however, find the well-armed Susquehannock
a dangerous and stubborn foe. The war drags on until 1656 with the Mohawk
(at great cost to themselves) slowly pushing the Susquehannock down the
eastern branch of the Susquehanna River.

The Susquehannock suddenly find themselves alone. New France is powerless
to help after Iroquois victories over the Huron and Neutrals, and the
Erie soon face their own war of survival against the Western Iroquois
(during 1653-1656). However, Governor Lauzon negotiates successfully
with the Mohawk, agreeing a peace treaty which removes one of the more
major threats to the colony.

1657 - 1658

Louis d'Ailleboust de Coulonge

Returned as acting governor.

1658 - 1661

Pierre de Voyer d'Argenson

1660 - 1669

In
May an Iroquois force of one hundred and sixty warriors attacks Montreal
and captures seventeen colonists Following other such raids, the
French
retaliate with small military force made up of French, Huron, and Algonquin
to counter the Iroquois raids - there are heavy casualties on both
sides.

The Iroquois strike the Delaware
throughout the Delaware Valley and throughout the 1660s, effectively taking
them out of the war. For the Susquehannock, the worst blow is a smallpox
epidemic that strikes in 1661. Their population is devastated to a point
from which it never recovers. A treaty is signed with the
British
Colony of Maryland, ending the lingering hostility with the
English.
The agreement provides firearms and ammunition, since the Maryland
colonists are well aware of the value of the Susquehannock as a buffer
against the
New Netherland-allied
Iroquois.

In 1663, with English help, the Susquehannock are able to turn back a major
Iroquois invasion. In the following year the English take New York from the
Dutch,
and shortly afterwards form their own alliance with the Iroquois. In 1666
Maryland, however, does not feel entirely assured by this and renews its
treaty with the Susquehannock.

The year 1667 coincides with another outbreak of smallpox, so the Iroquois
make peace with New France and their native allies and this allows them to
concentrate on their war with the Susquehannock. With the support of
Maryland, the Susquehannock fight on in an increasingly bitter struggle,
but by autumn 1669 they are down to only three hundred warriors and are
forced to ask the Iroquois for peace. The Iroquois response to their
offer is to torture and kill the Susquehannock ambassador who delivers it.

1661 - 1663

Pierre Dubois d'Avaugour

1663

Given the fear and turmoil caused by the Beaver Wars, it is not
surprising that the
French
government of Louis XIV reorganises the colonies. The duties of the
governorship are divided and the more important military responsibilities
are retained by the new position of governor-general.

Governors General of New FranceAD 1663 - 1763

The Iroquois Wars, otherwise known as the Beaver Wars, changed things
for the colonies. After two decades of sometimes extremely violent
warfare between the native Americans which sometimes also engulfed
French
settlements and even saw Montreal under attack at one point (1660),
the old governorship was divided in 1663. The king, Louis XIV, took
over the administration of New France from the Compagnie des
Cent-Associés and created a more militaristic upper rank of
government.

Responsibility for finance, justice, and the police was handed to a
new position, the intendant. Control over diplomatic relations and
military affairs was given to the new governor general, who held
office in Quebec City. Professional soldiers were sent to the colony
in the 1660s to fight the Iroquois, adopting a scorched earth policy
in order to starve then out. At about the same time, the
Dutch,
who were allied to the Iroquois, found themselves evicted from
New Netherland
by the
English.
Together, those two events gave the French the upper hand in North
America for the first time. At the point of starvation the Iroquois
sued for peace and suddenly a much greater focus could be placed on
halting the English expansion.

During the century of its existence, New France reached its greatest
extent, stretching from Newfoundland to the Gulf of Mexico via the
later American Midwest.

1663 - 1665

Augustin de Mesy

First governor
general of New France.

1665 - 1672

Daniel de Rémy
de Courcelle

1665 - 1672

Daniel
de Rémy de Courcelle establishes the first militias in New France, which will
become an essential element in the wars against the
English. In 1666, five hundred
French
led by de Courcelle, invade the Iroquois homeland in present day New York
state. However, the French are greatly outnumbered and are forced to retreat.
A second French invasion of 1,300 men led by Alexandre de Prouville, the
'Marquis de Tracy' and viceroy of New France, destroys Mohawk villages and
crops. The Mohawk are forced to sue for peace.

In 1667 the native Americans suffer a renewed outbreak of smallpox, so the
Iroquois make peace with New France and their native allies and this allows
them to concentrate on their war with the Susquehannock. With the support
of the British
Colony of Maryland, the Susquehannock fight on in an increasingly
bitter struggle, but by autumn 1669 they are down to only three hundred
warriors and are forced to ask the Iroquois for peace. De Courcelle,
though, is able to negotiate with several of the native tribes to secure
the French colonies some peace, and approves an expedition to the west
in order to find the long-sought after land passage to
China.

1673

Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet travel along the Mississippi,
documenting the native villagers. They are the first Europeans to enter the
region.

René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, explored the Great
Lakes, the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico, and claimed the
entire Mississippi basin for New France

1672 - 1682

Louis de Buade de Frontenac

1682 - 1685

Joseph-Antoine de La Barre

1683 - 1698

War
between the Iroquois and New France is resumed due to the
French
encroaching on their fur trade. Violent conflict erupts against the French,
with them supported by their Indian allies and the Iroquois launching sporadic
raids against both. It takes the Iroquois until 1698 before they realise that
they are the scapegoat in what is essentially an
English-inspired war and they immediately sue for peace.

1685 - 1689

Jacques-Rene de Brisay de Denonville

1689

Denonville arrives with intentions of having a great effect on the colony
for the glory of
France
at the opening of the First French-Indian War. The colony has been
continually hampered in its efforts to expand by the hostile attentions of
the Iroquois, so after capturing
British fur trader posts on Hudson Bay he marches against them,
captures their leaders to be shipped to France as slaves, and lays waste to
the lands of the Seneca.
Retribution is swift, with the Iroquois destroying farms and burning towns.
The violence ends with the Massacre of Lachine in which the town of that name
is burned to the ground. Twenty-four colonists are killed and another hundred
or so are captured, many of them to be burned alive and even eaten. Louis de
Buade, comte de Frontenac is selected by the king to regain control in the
beleaguered colony, and for a while he does, until ships from the British
colonies in New England arrive in 1690.

1689 - 1698

Louis de Buade de Frontenac

Second term.

1691

Due to the threat of
French
encroachment from Louisiana,
New Spain establishes its first
presence in Texas, although these early missions quickly fail. King William's
War (1690-1697) sees Acadia captured by the British, but it is returned as
part of the peace settlement.

1698 - 1703

Louis-Hector de Calliere

Governor of Montreal (1684-1698).

1699

A colony is founded at Fort Maurepas, which is also known as Old Biloxi (now
Ocean Springs in the state of Mississippi), the first in this territory.

1702 - 1713

The first European settlement in what will become Alabama is founded by the
French at Mobile. In the same year, 1702, Acadia is recaptured by the
British during Queen Anne's War and this time it remains in British
hands, as confirmed by the Treaties of Utrecht in 1713, becoming part of the
British Colonies territory
of Nova Scotia. New France itself is split into five colonies which each
have their own administrative bodies: Acadia, Canada, Hudson Bay,
Louisiana, and
Newfoundland.

Simultaneously, the Second French-Indian War kicks off in 1702 with
the New England Raids against the Abnaki.
The Battle of Deerfield or Deerfield Massacre on 29 February 1704 involves
a force that is comprised of Abnaki,
Kanienkehaka,
Pocumtuc, and
Wyandot, led by a small
contingent of French-Canadian militia. They sack the town of Deerfield,
Massachusetts, killing fifty-six civilians and taking dozens more as
captives.

1703 - 1725

Philippe de Rigaud de Vaudreuil

1716

New missions are established by
New Spain in Texas to create a buffer zone between it and the
French
possession of
Louisiana. These are followed in 1718 by the first European settlement in
Texas, at San Antonio.

1726 - 1747

Charles de la Boische de Beauharnois

1738

The
French-Canadian
trader, Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, sieur de La Vérendrye, enters the
territory that will become North Dakota with an exploration party that
reaches the Mandan villages in the region. During this period, trading posts
are also being set up in what is now Ohio and New France lays claim to what
is now Oklahoma.

By the start of the eighteenth century, French Quebec was a
thriving colonial city

1744 - 1748

The
War of the Austrian Succession is a wide-ranging conflict that encompasses
the North American King George's War, two Silesian Wars, and the
War of Jenkins'
Ear, and involves most of the crowned heads of Europe in deciding the
question of whether Maria Theresa can succeed as archduke of
Austria
and, perhaps even more importantly, as
Holy Roman Emperor.
Austria is supported by
Britain, the
Netherlands,
the Savoyard kingdom of
Sardinia, and
Saxony
(after an early switchover), but opposed by an opportunistic
Prussia and
France,
who had raised the question in the first place to disrupt Habsburg control
of central Europe, backed up by
Bavaria
and Sweden
(briefly). Spain
joins the war in an unsuccessful attempt to restore possessions lost to
Austria in 1715.

The War of Jenkins' Ear pitches Britain against Spain between 1739-1748. The
Russo-Swedish War, or Hats' Russian War, is the Swedish attempt
to regain territory lost to
Russia
in 1741-1743. King George's War is fought between Britain and France in the French
Colonies in 1744-1748. The First Carnatic War of 1746-1748 involves the
struggle for dominance in
India
by France and Britain. Henry Pelham, leader of the English government in
Parliament,
is successful in ending the war, achieving peace with France and trade with Spain
through the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. Austria is ultimately successful, losing
only Silesia to Prussia.

1747 - 1749

Roland-Michel Barrin

1747 - 1749

Plans
in the British
Colonies for opening the area to settlement get underway in 1747 when
Virginia grants a charter to the Ohio Company. Pennsylvania considers the
Ohio tribes to be subject to the Iroquois, but when they refuse the league's
orders to return to the Susquehanna, it is obvious that something needs to
be done.

No longer able to ignore the defection of their 'women', in 1749 the Iroquois
create a system of half-kings (special Iroquois emissaries) to represent the
Ohio tribes (who number 10,000 by this time) in their councils. This seems to
satisfy the Delaware and Shawnee
and, when Pierre-Joseph Céloron de Blainville leads a
French
expedition to the Ohio River in 1749 to expel
British
traders, he marks out the boundary of French territory with lead plates. His
reception is unfriendly, with the Ohio tribes demanding to know by what
right the French are claiming Iroquois land.

1749 - 1752

Jacques-Pierre de Taffanel

1750

By this time, settlers from New France have drifted from the east side of
the Mississippi into the area of what is now St Genevieve in the state of
Missouri. St Louis is subsequently founded as the centre of the regional fur
trade.

1752 - 1755

Michel-Ange Duquesne de Menneville

1752

With
traders of the
British
Colonies subverting the loyalty of their allies, and the
Delaware, Mingo, and Shawnee
defying its authority, New France decides to militarily enforce its claims
to Ohio. It turns first to the Detroit tribes (Ojibwa, Ottawa, Potawatomi,
and Wyandot), usually its most dependable allies, but the tribes are thinking
of trading with the
British
themselves and do not want to fight the Ohio tribes. In June, Charles
Langlade, a French-Ojibwe of mixed blood, leads a war party of 250
Ojibwa and Ottawa from Mackinac and destroys the Miami village and British
trading post at Piqua, Ohio.

As shown by this modern image, a French expedition visited
Logstown in 1749 (location of the eponymous 1752 treaty), under
the command of Pierre-Joseph Celeron de Blainville

Following the initial shock of this attack, the tribes of the
French
alliance fall into place, and the French follow up their success by building
a line of forts across western Pennsylvania to block British access to Ohio.
Most Delaware and Shawnee have no desire to be controlled by the French and
therefore turn to the Iroquois
for help. From the Iroquois perspective, the French and British seem like two
thieves fighting over their land, but they decide that the French are the more
immediate threat. The league signs the Logstown Treaty, which reconfirms
their 1744 cession of land and gives the British permission to build a
blockhouse at Pittsburgh. Before it is finished however, the French burn it.

1754 - 1758

In May a conference is held at Albany between representatives of the
British
Colonies and Iroquois League to prepare for war with New France.
Unable to defend Ohio, the Iroquois cede it to Pennsylvania, but they fully
intend to keep the Wyoming and Susquehanna valleys. Unfortunately, an
Albany trader manages to get some of the minor Iroquois representatives
drunk, and when they sober up they discover that they have signed an
agreement with a Connecticut land company that opens up the valleys to
settlement. Rather than achieve unity, the conference ends with the
Iroquois furious with the
British
about this treaty, Pennsylvania protesting Connecticut's attempt to claim
its territory, and the Delaware
threatening to kill any whites who try to settle in the Wyoming Valley.
Meanwhile, Virginia has decided to act on its own and sends an expedition
commanded by a twenty-two year-old militia major named George Washington to
demand the surrender of Fort Duquesne, the new fort built by the
French
at Pittsburgh. Major Washington gets himself into a fight with French
soldiers and starts the French-Indian War.

The Fourth French-Indian War erupts, starting with the Battle of Great
Meadows. Two more battles are fought in 1754, these being Fort Necessity and
Braddock's Defeat, with Crown Point (Lake George) taking place in 1755 against the
Mohawk and the
Caughnawaga who are led by
Hendrick, while in earlier battles the Mingo people are led by Half-King. In
1756, Oswego is the only battle.

In 1757 the siege of Fort William Henry involves the Upper Great Lakes Indians
- generally Iroquois, Ottawa, and Abnaki from
Canada. When the
fort's red-coated British and blue-coated troops of the British Colonies
are forced to surrender after days of bombardment, they are offered all
the honours of war. The French General Montcalm allows them to march back
to Fort Edward with their weapons and possessions intact. His native allies
have other ideas, however. After rampaging through the fort to kill and scalp
the wounded and dig up corpses for the same treatment, they charge into the
assembled body of retreating British and massacre between seventy and one
hundred and eighty of them. Colonel Munro and various other scattered survivors
eventually reach the protection of Fort Edward (the massacre is portrayed with
brutal realism in the 1992 film, Last of the Mohicans, although Munro
is killed in this version).

The following year, 1758, sees battles take place at Louisburg and Fort
Frontenac with little native involvement.

1755 - 1760

Pierre François de Rigaud

Son of Philippe de Rigaud (1703). Last governor.

1759 - 1763

In 1759 General James Wolfe claims New France for the
British Colonies with victory over
the French
in the Battle of Quebec. In 1763, France cedes the vast and wild
Louisiana Territory
(stretching from modern Louisiana to Canada) to
Spain
where it forms part of
New Spain (excluding southern
Alabama which is appended to British
West Florida). New
France itself is formally handed over to Britain and renamed the province
of Quebec, which in
1791 becomes part of
Canada.

The Royal Proclamation of 1763 has long been debated by
historians in reference to its influence on the later
revolutionary war, but it was a genuine attempt to respect the
territorial rights of the native Americans following the
conclusion of the French-American War

1800

The
French
take back the
Louisiana
Territory under the
terms of the Treaty of San Iidefonso.

1803

On 30 April, Napoleon Bonaparte, first citizen of
France, sells
Louisiana to the
United States for 80
million francs. This marks the end of French involvement in North America,
but France is responsible for creating the short-lived
Second Mexican empire in 1864.